Because of Christ

Carl Braaten, Because of Christ: Memoirs of a Lutheran Pastor-Theologian (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2010) That all changed in the fall of 1983 with the arrival of Seminex - nine faculty members plus Paul Manz, the majority of its students, President John Tietjen, and four administrative staff. The name "Seminex" stands for "seminary in exile." Seminex began in 1974 as a result of a conflict in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod between the faculty of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and Jacob Preus, the president of the synod. Preus campaigned for the presidency on the promise that he would get rid of all liberal tendencies in the Missouri Synod, particularly at its seminaries. He accused the St. Louis faculty of false doctrine, of using historical criticism in biblical interpretation, and of violating the principle of sola Scriptura. Preus got the Board of Control to suspend the seminary president, John Tietjen. The students and the faculty walked off the campus in protest, and set up a seminary in exile at an off-campus site. The LSTC faculty was sympathetic with the cause of the Concordia faculty. Since Seminex was not yet an accredited school, LSTC offered to grant diplomas to its first class of graduates. Eventually the conditions for the survival of Seminex were such that they needed to look for other options. A final decision was reached to disperse the Seminex faculty to seminaries of the Lutheran Church in America. The majority were assigned to LSTC, and a few went to Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary. I was involved in the negotiations led by President Bill Lesher and Dean Frank Sherman at LSTC. Offering hospitality to Seminex seemed like the churchly thing to do. Naturally we had some worrying questions about the effect the coming of Seminex would have on LSTC. Our faculty was being asked to welcome ten new faculty members all from the same ethnic group. The administrations of the two seminaries gave the LSTC faculty the proper assurances to relieve any doubts that its members might have had about the coming of Seminex. Who would pay for this influx? Seminex would, we were told. They would raise a million dollars annually to pay their own salaries and all of the overhead. What would be their teaching responsibilities? Their faculty members would teach courses in the core curriculum as needed, plus seminars in their respective areas of specialization. When a vacancy would occur on the LSTC faculty, a nationwide search for a successor would be undertaken, with the stipulation that a member of the Seminex faculty would be eligible for consideration. It seemed like a fair deal. Sad to say, none of the assurances were met. In due course Seminex became part of the LSTC family. The annual support of a million dollars lars diminished with each passing year. All the Seminex faculty merged into the LSTC faculty, with one exception. The Seminex professor of homiletics, David Deppe, was discontinued on charges of homosexual promiscuity. He left his wife